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The primary motor cortex of schizophrenia patients show neuronal and subcellular impairments in the right hemisphere – postmortem study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2024

P. Szocsics*
Affiliation:
1Human Brain Research Laboratory, HUN-REN, Institute of Experimental Medicine 2János Szentágothai Doctoral School of Neuroscience, Semmelweis University
P. Papp
Affiliation:
3Cerebral COrtex Research Group, HUN-REN, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest
L. Havas
Affiliation:
4Department of Pathology 5Department of Psychiatry, St. Borbála Hospital, Tatabánya, Hungary
J. Lőke
Affiliation:
5Department of Psychiatry, St. Borbála Hospital, Tatabánya, Hungary
Z. Maglóczky
Affiliation:
1Human Brain Research Laboratory, HUN-REN, Institute of Experimental Medicine
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

In mental disorders, very little is known about the cellular and subcellular mechanisms underlying the development of symptoms. Postmortem studies can contribute to understanding these. Our research group collects and studies cortical samples with short postmortem intervals from schizophrenia patients.

Objectives

We investigated primary motor cortical brain samples, to understand the background of motor symptoms in schizophrenia.

Methods

Both hemispheres of primary motor cortices of eight control- and eight subjects with schizophrenia were analysed by immunohistochemistry. We labelled pyramidal cells with SMI32 antibody, which binds to neurofilaments, and parvalbumin (PV) antibody, which labels one type of inhibitory input on these cells, axo-axonic and axo-somatic interneurons, and a proportion of giant pyramidal neurons (Betz cells). We were interested in the size and density of layer 3 and 5 pyramidal cells and Betz cells, the distribution of PV-labelled terminals and the PV expression of Betz cells. Results of the subjects were compared both as a whole and separately per hemisphere.

Results

Most changes were present in the primary motor cortices in the right hemisphere (presumably subdominant). Here, the density of Betz cells and their inhibitory inputs were also reduced. PV-expression of Betz cells was not dependent on the group studied, but we observed that it is decreasing with age. The other investigated characteristics show no significant differences.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that the primary motor cortex may be involved in schizophrenia. Neurodevelopmental, pharmacological and neurodegenerative causes could be involved in this process. Network dysconnectivity is likely to underlie the stronger involvement of the subdominant side, and literature data point also in this direction. We believe that our research method is suitable for the study of the background of other symptoms and may lead to a better understanding of schizophrenia, especially if we could combine our results with clinical research.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
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